Following the sweeping attacks Donald Trump has made nationwide against the Transgender and nonbinary communities and the removal of any reference to “TQ+” from government websites, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has now erased terminology that may impact all members of our community.
In accordance with Trump’s executive orders, the terms “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” have been cleared from the department’s policy manual. That means LGBTQ+ individuals or groups, previously protected from surveillance or questioning by the government just because of their identity, are no longer.
The terms were added to the list of protected individuals by former President Biden on his first day of office, under the executive order titled “Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation.”
The manual’s language regarding personal protections, located on Page 79 under General Requirements, now states, “OSIC [Open Source Intelligence Collection] Personnel are prohibited from engaging in intelligence activities based solely on an individual’s or group’s race, ethnicity, sex, religion, country of birth, nationality or disability. The use of these characteristics is permitted only in combination with other information, and only where (1) intended and reasonably believed to support one or more of [Intelligence and Analysis’] national or departmental missions and (2) narrowly focused in support of that mission (or those missions).”
The very quiet edit made to Homeland Security’s intelligence policies has the possibility of sending the queer community back to a time that disproportionally targeted LGBTQ+ citizens for a variety of reasons, whether being deemed security risks as during the 1950s “Lavendar Scare,” or a “public health concern” during the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s.
Speaking with independent LGBTQ+ journalism platform Erin In The Morning, Don Bell, policy counsel at the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), said the renewed policy is alarming, especially considering the ever increasing government attacks on the LGBTQ+ community. “Whenever you remove protections, it increases the risk to disfavored communities, and really, if you’re able to violate the civil rights and liberties of one community or one individual, then there’s no limit to it,” Bell added.
While the changes don’t specifically label LGBTQ+ Americans citizens as potential targets for surveillance, it is the absence of the terms that give ambiguity to the “updated” list of rules and potential cause for concern.